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A rebel force led by Islamist factions overran a major northwestern Syrian city on Saturday, rebel sources said, in what would represent an important victory for the country's beleaguered armed opposition. The Army of Conquest, a coalition of Islamist groups that include Al Nusra Front, Al Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, and the hard-line Islamist Ahrar Al Sham faction were said to have taken control of Idlib on Saturday, after five days of heavy clashes with forces loyal to President Bashar Assad. “The city of Idlib has been completely liberated and the mujahedin are chasing the remnants of the [government forces] in their attempt to escape,” a message on Al Nusra...

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A rebel force led by Islamist factions overran a major northwestern Syrian city on Saturday, rebel sources said, in what would represent an important victory for the country's beleaguered armed opposition.
The Army of Conquest, a coalition of Islamist...

The social media post features an odd incarnation of war booty: plundered sacks of dried lentils, humanitarian aid turned spoils of a punishing conflict.
"For the Syrian people from the United States of America," reads a label superimposed on a...

Since President Obama asked Congress in February for a new Authorization for Use of Military Force against Islamic State, the proposal has been under attack by hawkish members of Congress. “My goal is to do no harm to the war effort,” Sen. Lindsey...

Syrian forces fighting to push back opposition gains in the southern part of the country wrested control of a number of villages Friday, according to government and rebel accounts, as the military pressed an offensive south of Damascus, the capital.
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It's an organization most everyone loathes — except, of course, for its fanatical supporters — but few seem quite sure what to call it. ISIL? ISIS? IS?
Islamic State, the homicidal Al Qaeda breakaway faction that has declared a "caliphate"...

Soon after the young woman was released by the Syrian government in a prisoner exchange, activists began noticing the signs.
The woman's husband immediately divorced her. She rarely ventured outside her parents' house. Not long after, she left for...

It is a time-honored tradition in American politics: Whenever the president turns unpopular, he fires someone and brings in a tried and tested veteran to clean house. Thus in 1987, in the middle of the Iran-Contra affair, out went Donald Regan as Ronald...

A group with ties to Al Qaeda has gained significant ground across Syria in recent weeks, creating the possibility that the war-ravaged nation will be divided among two opposing militant Islamic groups and the government of President Bashar Assad — with...

Since declaring a caliphate, Islamic State has garnered support from more than a dozen Islamist militant groups in the Middle East and Asia, but the dearth of endorsements by many of the largest and most recognizable groups serves to underscore the limits...

The veteran rebel stood atop a pile of rocks, gazing across a barbed-wire fence at his homeland, Syria, where a black flag fluttered in the distance.
"That's my house, the one with the blue door," said Mohammed, with a gray beard and a beige...

Some rebel reinforcements reached the besieged Syrian city of Kobani, officials said Wednesday. But the main force of fighters from Iraqi Kurdistan, aiming to help fellow Kurds battle Islamic State militants, was said to be still en route as night...

The Obama administration's plan to raise a 15,000-strong rebel army in Syria has run into steep political and military obstacles, raising doubts about a key element of the White House strategy for defeating Islamic State militants in the midst of a...

The Islamic State militant group kidnapped and tortured dozens of boys in Syria this year, beating them with hoses or electrical cables and forcing them to watch videos of beheadings and combat, Human Rights Watch said Tuesday.
The youths, ages 14 to 16,...

American warplanes have struck for a third time an Al Qaeda-linked extremist faction operating in Syria, the U.S. military's Central Command said Friday.
A single airstrike targeted the Khorasan group, Centcom said in a statement, referring to a...

Turkish-American relations reached their nadir last week. Turkey's failure to take a definitive stance on Islamic State has unleashed a torrent of criticism in Western media of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his government. Vice President Joe Biden...

Simko Karamogh sits smoking a cigarette and recounts a close-quarters gun battle with an Islamic State fighter in the besieged city of Kobani.
“We shot him three times but he must have had some kind of drugs,” recalled Karamogh, a 35-year-old fighter...

President Obama, who swept to power in 2008 in part on his promise to pull U.S. troops out of Iraq, is clearly a reluctant warrior. His concern about getting involved in "mission creep" in the deserts of Iraq, where nearly 4,500 troops have...

The prayer room in the 12th century mosque had the feel of a bachelor pad — cups of tea and coffee and half-full ashtrays covered most surfaces. A lanky teenager named Hussein Mansour plopped himself down and placed a grenade and a small bag of pretzels...